Monthly Archives: July 2014

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Many businesses share common management concerns including potential supply chain disruptions. These common supply chain threats include extreme weather like hurricanes or tornadoes, or natural disasters like earthquakes and floods. Other kinds of disruptions like supplier breaks, labor issues and pricing risks, are perhaps less dramatic, but hold the same potential for damage. For every business, the type and ultimate impact of supply chain disruptions will vary. There are several threats to a business”s supply chain, especially if they rely on transportation.

Supplier Breaks

Any manager waiting for a truckload of raw materials originating in a hurricane zone along the Gulf knows that unforeseen disruptions are costly and can potentially put their business at risk. Supplier breaks can arise for a variety of reasons.

Climate change and environmental damage continue to cause supplier breaks because they can lead to swings in the cost of commodities and other materials prices, which can affect your bottom line. For example, changes in climate led to a reduction in grain crops in Eastern Europe, leaving many food manufacturers forced to increase prices to cover the drop in supply and subsequent increase in price. Unanticipated events like explosions in warehouses, business failures, or new regulations can end in supplier breaks too. Continue reading →

Choosing supply chain technology is the most important decision a logistics manager makes in his or her career. Why? Simply because the right software solution can propel a company forward, regardless of how bad the economy is, while the wrong one may bury the business for good. Unfortunately, selecting the best supply chain management (SCM) system can be difficult.

Selecting a SCM System

Never has so much technology been developed to help organizations improve supply chain performance. Yet, the performance of most supply chains has never been worse. Due to poor coordination and planning, dysfunctional industry practices, and high costs resulting from adversarial relations among partners, most supply chain organizations generate low profit margins, surviving, not thriving. To help you choose the right SCM system for your company, the rest of this post delineates the steps you should follow in the selection process. Continue reading →

For businesses that transport their products within North America and carriers, protecting their bottom line from volatile fuel prices is an ongoing concern. One way to garner some protection from a fluctuating fuel price is the fuel surcharge.

What is Fuel Surcharge?

The fuel surcharge is the total cost for fuel usage. It is a contract between the shipper and another party that sets a standard rate for the fuel and how much will be paid above the base rate, and what fuel price triggers the surcharge, or no surcharge at all. Continue reading →

The supply chain is threatened with insecurity from all directions. Theft, terrorism, and cyber crime are just a few examples of threats faced by goods on transit. Fortunately, there are several simple yet effective ways through which the security of the supply chain can be improved.

Here are six practices that you should consider if you’re resolute about enhancing your supply chain security.

1. Applying a structured approach

The first step in averting any risk is usually to stay safe: do not expose yourself to the problem. Start by forming a diverse team tasked primarily with managing supply chain risks at the organization. Then you can have all departments within the organization assessing and outlining their specific concerns which are then planned for by this management team. Every department has its own special needs and giving them the opportunity to express their concerns is the best way of identifying and tackling all risks within the entire organization. Continue reading →